The good life is never what it seems: The celebrity ‘alternative facts’ of ‘The Arrangement’

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“The Arrangement” is a feast for the eyes. Aside from the beauty of its stars, watching this E! series is akin to scrolling through a celebrity’s Instagram or Facebook page. It’s all glamorous trips to international film festivals, yachts, candle-lit dinners, and stylists making house calls to personally alter expensive couture for free. Oh, and don’t forget the diamonds. What A-list star goes to an event without first being draped in millions of dollars’ worth of jewelry?

On Sunday night’s (March 12) episode, Kyle West (Josh Henderson) and his new contract fiancée Megan Morrison (Christine Evangelista) jet off to Venice for the premiere of his latest film — the big caveat being that it will be the first time West will see his ex-fiancée, Lisbeth (Ashley Grace) in public, and everyone needs to have their game faces on. While West’s team does everything to make sure they don’t cross paths, Lisbeth’s team has a different plan entirely.

Perpetuating the rumor that these two famous exes hate each other doesn’t bode well for either of them: If people think they’re fighting, the public has to pick a winner, thus relegating one of them to loser — and Lisbeth isn’t willing to take that chance. To skirt that career hit, her people shuffle the schedule around so they’re forced to reunite for pictures at a press event. They each plaster big smiles on their faces, sending the message out to the world that what’s done is done — these former exes remain great friends, with a deep mutual respect for one another. Pretty sure any viewer who’s ever read a celebrity break-up statement has heard this exact line before.

Even though it’s all for show, Megan can’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. She signed up to be his forever plus-one because she believes they actually have something special. But it’s clear West still has feelings for the woman that left him at the altar, and now she’s seriously questioning if West wants Lisbeth back. Is Megan just there to fill the void? Her glaring face during the photo shoot is captured on camera, and subsequently spread across every tabloid.

As quickly as fans shipped “Kygen,” they revolt in hopes that Lisbeth and Kyle will reunite. Megan is all of a sudden “the other woman,” a thirsty actress who’s only dating West for fame — and keeping a couple that the public loved together from rekindling their true love. But that’s all crap, because even the original story is crap. Everything about this entire situation is fake. And the alternative facts about this fake relationship are false. Or to be more specific, it’s not the alternative truth West’s team wants his fans to believe.

It makes one pause and wonder: Is anything we ever read about celebrities actually true? Remember when such questions were actually important? For now that the popularity of alternatives facts and fake news has bled into political and world news, the personal lives of Hollywood’s elite are getting a much-needed break from the spotlight.

While Megan deals with the onslaught of instantaneous fan backlash from a mere brief moment of breaking character, she is also struggling with the fact that even though she’s physically where she’s always dreamed of being, she didn’t actually earn her way there. She didn’t write or act in any of these films premiering, she’s just kind of… there. She took the easy way up — and Megan not only feels ashamed, she’s embarrassed.

However, the show must go on. While it’s laughable when West makes them re-do their exit after dinner in order to give the paparazzi their money shot, it’s not so funny when a scuffle causes West to punch a photographer in the face. The paparazzi are paid handsomely to keep this entire scene out of the news.. But money can’t always buy your way out of bad publicity — and what Megan can and can’t do, to keep such occurrences from happening, is going to be suffocating.

While it appears that she’s living the good life, Megan will soon be exhausted by trying to keep up this perfect facade. If the Institute of the Higher Mind keeps regulating her lifestyle, and she finds herself stuck a loveless relationship, Megan will soon be questioning if all of this glitz and glam is even worth it. We think she already is.